ALPINE TOWNSHIP, MI — Despite achieving near-ubiquity on draft at West Michigan bars in the 8 months since opening, Perrin Brewing Co., planned from the get-go as a production brewery, has yet to send any beer to retail store shelves.

Bottles and cans of Perrin craft beer are still planned, say company representatives, although package distribution plans are on indefinite hold for now at the Comstock Park brewery amid some brewhouse staff shakeup and internal missteps.

“We’re learning a lot of very hard lessons, but within those lessons, we’re gaining a lot of wisdom,” said Jarred Sper, co-owner and minority partner at Perrin, a 23,000-square-foot microbrewery which opened last fall at 5190 Comstock Park Drive in Alpine Township.

The brewery's majority partner is Randy Perrin, a low-profile businessman who founded the successful Perrin Sportswear resort apparel company.

Company leaders also decided this spring that the high-end $1 million 36-head Krones bottling line purchased new in 2012 is “too big for our needs," said Sper.

"It will be too big for our needs for several years."

Sper said the speed of the pricey bottling line would fill up the brewery cellar too quickly for the pace of orders, and that the company is currently shopping it around.

“We don’t have the room or space in the brewery to hold the equipment needed to run that line efficiently and effectively."

Meanwhile, Sper said the company is planning to concentrate on pushing out beer though a canning line before tackling a smaller, more manageable bottling line.

That canning line, though, is still under construction. Perrin plans to distribute beer in old-school flat top cans, a specialized type of container that requires a churchkey to open. Sper said Wild Goose Engineering of Colorado has been working on the cans and the line for the past six months.

Flat top cans may be limited release, he said.

He could not specify a date for either bottle or can shipments, other than to say “unequivocally, ‘yes,’” to whether those lines will eventually be developed.

Perrin, which operates a 30-barrel system, recently hit its 100-batch milestone. Since opening, Sper said the company has brewed about 3,000 barrels; distributed in kegs through West Side Beer Distributing to nearly 300 bars around Lansing, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo.

The brewery is on pace to make between 8,000 and 12,000 barrels in the next year, if all goes well, said Sper. The brewery’s mainstay brands include a golden ale, a black lager, a raspberry blonde ale, an IPA and a grapefruit IPA.

In the wake of Walser’s exit, Sam Sherwood has been promoted to head brewer and former Saugatuck brewer John Stewart has been brought on staff, said Sper.

He declined to discuss specifics on Walser, who is currently working as a consultant on a brewery project for Chicago restaurateur Homaro Cantu. Walser is the second head brewer to leave Perrin. He replaced Thomas Nicely, who came to Perrin after stints at Goose Island and Lagunitas.

“We’re not afraid to say we’ve made mistakes — if you’re not making mistakes you’re not learning,” said Sper. “We’ll definitely be more deliberate when we decide what type of equipment we want to bring into the brewery” in the future.